Freindship and Traveling

A wise woman once told me: “There are only two ways of really knowing someone: you either marry them or travel with them”. And in the course of a little more than a year I just found out that this is true. And by the reports I heard, it seems that traveling is even more revealing them marrying.

The facts I’m familiar with happened to two friends of mine in separate trips. The first one just made a bad decision when she decided to travel with a girl that, although a friend of hers, didn’t have that much in common. The second was surprised by a friend that proved to be individualistic, selfish and arrogant.

I’ll call my first friend Gail. Gail traveled to the US with a friend of hers which I don’t know the name. They were friends, but they didn’t have that much in common. They ended up separated almost every time during the trip. Gail wanted to spend 5 hours at the Met in New York and her friend wanted to spend 5 hours shopping at 5th Avenue. That’s just to highlight one big difference. Long story short: when they came back Gail’s friend had two suitcases of things and Gail only one. Gail’s father was supposed to pick them up at the airport when they arrived, but there was no room for Gail’s friend luggage. Gail warned her friend before. She reluctantly accepted and asked her boyfriend to pick her up at the airport. After that trip, they never spoke again.

My second friend on the other hand, had a much deeper and upsetting problem. I’ll call my second friend Brenda. Brenda and Kate were great friends. They had common interests, they went to each other’s houses, got drunk together. Until one day they decided to take a cruise to the Florida keys. On paper, it was supposed to be the best thing.

Things started to go south already when they were planning the trip. Kate never gave up her will and Brenda was always the one adjusting to Kate’s wishes. Brenda had never been to the cruise, but Kate didn’t mind helping her. She met some friends of hers there from her hometown and just abandoned Brenda. To make things worse, they had planned one more trip. They went to LA after the cruise. But when they got there, things got even worse. Kate was still the same, only now making sure she made fun of Brenda for never being in LA. Luckily for Brenda, they went back home on different planes.

Now, real friends don’t let any of this happen. If you really care for the person with you, you waive some of your idiosyncrasies in the name of a greater good, which is a happy and fun trip.

When Brenda told me this story, I was agape because I knew Kate fairly well. Actually, we had a fling for a month. Thus, I asked Brenda: “Had Kate gone insane?” To which she answered: “No, she just showed who she really is.”